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Power and planning in Ethiopia: Make me a city

埃塞俄比亚的权力与规划：让我成为一座城市。

Ethiopia’s capital is a showcase for its leader’s voting ambition.

埃塞俄比亚首都展示了其领导人的选举野心。

To walk among the happy throngs in Sheger Park, Addis Ababa’s newest and glitziest public space, is to encounter an idealised vision of Ethiopia’s future.

谢格公园是亚的斯亚贝巴最新、最炫目的公共空间，在公园内欢乐的人群中漫步，你会看到埃塞俄比亚未来的理想化景象。

Gentle piano music wafts through the air.

轻柔的钢琴声在空中飘荡。

Beaming newly-weds pose for photographs beside a glittering artificial lake.

喜气洋洋的新婚夫妇在闪闪发光的人工湖旁摆姿势拍照。

Young professionals clink wine glasses as families donning traditional white shawls wander through a botanical garden.

年轻的职业人士碰杯，几家人披着传统白色披肩在植物园漫步。

When the sun sets a spectacular display of water fountains erupts to rapturous applause.

太阳落山时，喷泉的壮观景象会引发热烈的掌声。

All Ethiopia’s modern history is on display, too.

埃塞俄比亚的所有现代历史也在展出。

Looming above you is the palace of Emperor Menelik II, who founded the Ethiopian capital in the late 19th century.

在你的头顶上隐约可见的是孟尼利克二世皇帝的宫殿，他于19世纪末建立了埃塞俄比亚首都。

To the north, beneath eucalyptus-covered hills, are districts built by Italian colonists in the 1930s that were once racially segregated.

再往北，在桉树覆盖的山丘下面，是意大利殖民者在20世纪30年代建造的地区，曾经实行过种族隔离。

To the east stands a grand circular building, in the style of an Ethiopian monastery, made for the national bank in the 1960s during the modernising phase of Emperor Haile Selassie’s reign.

东面矗立着一座宏伟的圆形建筑，其风格类似于埃塞俄比亚的一座修道院，该修道院是在20世纪60年代海尔·塞拉西皇帝统治时期的现代化阶段时，为国家银行建造的。

A soaring bronze monument nearby commemorates the socialist revolution of 1974.

附近耸立着一座纪念1974年社会主义革命的青铜纪念碑。

Squint a little, and in the distance you spy rows of hulking tower blocks, built during the era of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a leftist rebel movement which seized power in 1991.

眯起眼睛，你可以看到远处一排排巨大的塔楼，这些塔楼建于埃塞俄比亚人民革命民主阵线（EPRDF）时期。EPRDF是一个在1991年夺取政权的左翼反叛运动。

Addis Ababa is a fabled capital.

亚的斯亚贝巴是传说中的首都。

Successive rulers have treated it as a “modernist monument for the rest of Ethiopia”, writes Elleni Centime Zeleke, author of “Ethiopia in Theory”.

《理论上的埃塞俄比亚》的作者埃莱尼·森特姆·泽莱克写道，历代统治者都将它视为“埃塞俄比亚其他地区的现代主义纪念碑”。

Its buildings, streets and public spaces are etched with the legacies of empire, war and revolution.

它的建筑、街道和公共空间都留下了帝国、战争和革命的痕迹。

From the racist master-plans of the Italian occupation, to the Haussmannian demolition schemes of the EPRDF years, each government has sought to recast the city in its own image.

从意大利占领时期的种族主义总体规划，到EPRDF时期的奥斯曼拆除计划，每一届政府都试图按照自己的形象重塑这座城市。

Now Abiy Ahmed, prime minister since 2018, is setting out to do so again—even as an atrocity-filled war with Tigrayan rebels has disgraced his regime and called the country’s future into question.

现在，自2018年起担任总理的阿比·艾哈迈德正准备再次这样做，尽管与提格雷叛军之间充满暴行的战争让他的政权蒙羞，并让国家的未来受到质疑。

The new park is one of a dizzying array of grands projets in the pipeline.

新公园是一系列令人眼花缭乱的大型项目之一。

Menelik II’s nearby palace has already been converted into the first of several new exhibition centres.

附近的孟尼利克二世宫殿已经被改造成第一个新展览中心。

Earlier this year a massive public library opened.

一家大型公共图书馆在今年早些时候开馆。

Next door a science museum and an amphitheatre are going up.

隔壁正在建一个科学博物馆和一个圆形剧场。

Several more parks and green spaces are germinating.

还有几个公园和绿地正在修建中。

The swishest of these, set on nearby Mount Entoto, boasts hiking trails, adventure sports, boutique restaurants and a luxury resort.

其中最豪华的位于附近的恩陀陀山，拥有徒步路线、冒险运动区、精品餐厅和豪华度假村。

“These days you see new changes every week,” gushes Gebre Sifer, a retired pastor visiting the library.

“最近每周都能看到新的变化，”参观图书馆的退休牧师格布雷·西弗夸张地称赞道。

The city’s existing infrastructure is also getting a facelift.

这座城市现有的基础设施也在翻新。

Government offices have been spruced up.

政府办公室已经装修一新。

Public thoroughfares have been splashed with colour and adorned with flowers and murals.

公共道路上到处五彩缤纷，装饰着鲜花和壁画。

Last year Meskel Square, the historic central plaza, was lavishly refurbished at a cost of more than $73m—a striking sum in a country in the midst of a civil war.

去年，梅斯克尔广场进行了大量翻新，这座历史悠久的中央广场耗资7300多万美元，对于一个正处于内战之中的国家来说，这是一笔惊人的金额。

For Abiy, who has cracked down on dissent and imprisoned opponents, refashioning the capital is a political project as well as an aesthetic one.

对于镇压了持异议者并监禁了反对者的阿比来说，重建首都既是一项政治工程，也是一项美学工程。

“If you can change Addis, definitely you can change Ethiopia,” he remarked in an early interview.

“如果你能改变亚的斯亚贝巴，你肯定能改变埃塞俄比亚，”他在早期的一次采访中说。

Glossy promotional videos depict the renovation scheme as a symbol of national unity.

精美的宣传视频将翻修计划描绘为国家统一的象征。

In the run-up to elections last year, in which the ruling party won over 90% of the seats contested, state media broadcast drone footage of the revamped city at the top of the evening news.

在去年大选的预备阶段，执政党赢得了90%以上的席位，官方媒体在晚间新闻的最上方播放了改造后的城市的无人机画面。

“Abiy believes that public spaces and monuments create the image of the Ethiopian state which he wants to project to his citizens and to the world,” says a former adviser.

一位前顾问说:“阿比认为，公共空间和纪念碑塑造了埃塞俄比亚的国家形象，那种他想向他的公民和世界展示的形象。”

To grasp the kind of image he has in mind, compare it with the style of the EPRDF, Abiy’s Marxist-inspired predecessors.

要想把握他心中的形象，可以将其与EPRDF的风格进行比较，EPRDF是阿比受马克思主义启发的前辈。

They viewed the city in essentially functional terms; their flagship urban projects were mostly large-scale bits of infrastructure such as housing estates and a light-rail system.

他们从基本功能的角度看待这座城市；他们的旗舰城市项目大多是大规模的基础设施，如住宅区和轻轨系统。

Aesthetic concerns were secondary.

审美方面的担忧是次要的。

Alula Tesfay Asfha of the University of Tsukuba notes the constructivist style of the period, in which buildings were designed to a minimum standard and aimed to cater to as many people as possible.

筑波大学的阿鲁拉·特斯菲·阿斯法哈注意到了那个时期的建构主义风格，即建筑的设计符合最低标准，旨在满足尽可能多的人的需求。

In practice this often meant drab high-rises built with cheap aluminium frames.

在实践中，这通常是指用廉价铝框架建造的死气沉沉的高层建筑。

Abiy’s priorities are very different.

阿比优先考虑的问题非常不同。

His ruling Prosperity Party has ditched the state-led economics of the EPRDF for a more liberal, consumerist kind of capitalism.

他的执政党繁荣党抛弃了国家主导的EPRDF经济体制，转而采用一种更自由、更消费主义的资本主义。

In this new orientation, outward appearances matter.

在这种新的定位中，外观很重要。

Asked about the flowers placed along the road to the airport, Abiy once said that “A mind that doesn’t see a good thing will not create a good thing.”

当被问及机场沿途摆放的鲜花时，阿比曾说：“一个人如果看不到好东西，就不会创造出好东西。”

In a recent televised meeting he berated officials for neglecting to promote a uniform colour for buildings in the city.

在最近的一次电视会议上，他斥责官员们忽视了促进城市建筑颜色统一的工作。

Since then its administration has ordered them to be painted in one of 13 shades of grey.

从那时起，当地政府就下令将这些建筑的外立面涂成13种灰色中的一种。

For Abiy, an evangelical Christian, the beautification may have a religious dimension, too.

对于福音派基督徒阿比来说，这种美化可能也有宗教方面的因素。

Tekalign Nega of the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology argues that the stress on urban aesthetics reflects the tenets of the prosperity gospel, in which earthly splendour and divine favour are closely entwined.

埃塞俄比亚神学研究生院的特卡利尼·内加认为，对城市美学的强调反映了繁荣福音的信条，在这个福音中，世间的辉煌和神的恩惠紧密交织在一起。

A clean and shiny Addis Ababa, according to this way of thinking, is a step on the road to both heaven and a peaceful, prosperous Ethiopia.

按照这种思路，让亚的斯亚贝巴变得干净且闪闪发光，是通往天堂以及和平繁荣的埃塞俄比亚之路上的一步。

“It’s about giving you a foretaste of what is about to come,” Tekalign says.

“这是先为你预示一下未来的样子，”特卡利尼说。

Yet it has provoked mixed reactions from Ethiopians.

然而，埃塞俄比亚人对此反应不一。

Few question the value of more and better used public spaces.

几乎没有人对更多并更好地利用公共空间的价值提出质疑。

The land beneath Sheger Park, for instance, had languished for years.

例如，谢格公园下面的土地已经荒废多年。

Many architects and urban planners appreciate their newfound status.

许多建筑师和城市规划师意识到了他们新获得的地位有多高。

Recently the government opened a swanky urban-design centre; it is holding competitions for major public developments.

最近，政府开设了一个时髦豪华的城市设计中心；这里正在为大型公共开发项目举办竞赛。

“The city was sleeping,” says Sofoniyas Solomon, a finalist in one of them.

“整个城市都在沉睡，”其中一组竞赛的决赛选手索非尼亚斯·所罗门说道。

“These changes are necessary.”

“这些变化是必要的。”

Others, though, worry about warped priorities.

然而，其他人担心考虑问题的优先顺序出现了偏差。

The first phase of the redesign was estimated to have cost $1bn.

据估计，重新设计的第一阶段已经耗资10亿美元。

As Abiy has pointed out when asked about his plans, much of the cash is from private sources or overseas (China and the United Arab Emirates).

正如阿比在被问及他的计划时指出的那样，大部分资金来自私人来源或海外(中国和阿联酋)。

But Ethiopian taxpayers are on the hook too, even as their conflict-hit economy collapses.

但埃塞俄比亚的纳税人也陷入了圈套，即使他们饱受冲突打击的经济状况正处于崩溃状态。

“The public must have a say in it,” grumbles Simon Chernet, a 25-year-old resident of the capital.

“公众必须对此有发言权，”首都25岁的居民西蒙·切尔内特抱怨道。

Some disparage the prime minister’s obsessive city management as befitting a mere mayor.

一些人贬损总理太过痴迷于城市管理，认为他只适合做一个市长。

Equally, though, it suggests a much grander precedent.

不过，同样，这也暗示了一个更宏大的先例。

When Haile Selassie saw the marble plaques installed in Africa Hall, the first seat of the African Union, he ordered the removal of the names of all the officials involved in its construction except his own.

当海尔·塞拉西看到安装在非洲大厦--非洲联盟的第一个所在地--的大理石牌匾时，他下令删除除他本人外所有参与建设的官员的名字。

“What have they done?” he is said to have asked.

据说他问道：“他们做了什么？”

Abiy was recently revealed to be following in his predecessor’s footsteps by building himself a luxurious new palace.

最近有消息称，阿比正效仿前辈，为自己建造一座豪华的新宫殿。

He seems to have a similar sense of his own place in history.

对于自己在历史上的地位，他似乎也有类似的感觉。

来源：经济学人